


The Marriage Lottery

by Teddy_Feathers



Category: Swapfell - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), M/M, Marriage lottery, Post post pasifist dystopia, Swapfell, Swapfell Sans (Undertale), Trans Male Character, the bachelor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 05:57:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19806133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teddy_Feathers/pseuds/Teddy_Feathers
Summary: It is the year 20xx, Humans have been on the surface now for well, who's counting really?The Queen is good, her people are beloved and yet...Tension between the races has never gone away. The war is ancient history but humans under monster rule have never forgotten.To combat this there are the usual concessions towards unity, the Queen adopts a new orphan human every couple of decades, and a little over every hundred years a monster of high standing picks a human out of a group of eligible humans to marry.That Bachelor is always the Queens Judge: Sans the skeleton.Maybe once upon a time Dore would have swooned at the thought of being chosen, but now? He's just trying to get out of the show before the season finale.





	The Marriage Lottery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I write a lot more than it seems - its just never on the same story (they will be updated though I swear). So Ive been thinking and I'm still going to post all my self indulgent nonsense as it comes up. 
> 
> This particular idea came from shitty-cryptids on tumblr "A contestant on the Bachelor who doesn’t want to be there but is unable to leave until the final so they constantly look into the camera like they’re on The Office." Obviously I'm not funny enough to pull that off exactly but we'll see what happens.

In Dore’s hand is a golden ticket - not to a chocolate factory no, but to the **_Marriage Lottery._**

There was no use asking ‘why me?’ everyone knew that the host Napstabot did a random drawing based off of his own constantly running census.

Two more years? Had that been too much to ask for before he was _probably_ out of the running?

Twenty eight wasn’t the oldest a contestant but it was up there considering magic could only keep the betrothed healthy for a hundred years - Time that was nothing compared to the eternity the monster bachelor would live without siring children.

The neighbor collecting their own mail from the box said something congratulatory and Dore had to stifle the sudden urge to shove the ticket somewhere and hide it.

Wouldn’t make a difference, they would be coming soon. One contestant had tried to run, back at the first lottery. She had been the first winner - and some say the bachelor’s first and only love.

Dore shakes his head and and heads upstairs. There he finds a crew already packing up his things, camera crew probably having been filming since he walked into the apartment building.

Before the day was out, Dore had been fitted and groomed and dressed against his will, lined up with the other twenty odd candidates in the Grand House’s foyer.

Despite the generations since the building’s use - the bachelor did not actually live here, _his_ privacy was _of course_ respected - it was immaculately clean, and smelled of some pleasant but unidentifiable flower. The last time Dore was here was during his forth grade field trip. The magic of the place that had once seemed magnificent was less so when it was being used to keep him from leaving.

Napstabot floats on out to some scattered applause, his popularity unrivaled in the millennia since the resurfacing, his hands - about five visibly present- make heart gestures, wave, and sign along to his cool robotic voice. “No need for that my friends, you’re all the stars here today!” He pauses to give a knowing smirk and a wink. “Well, you and our lucky Bachelor.”

There were a few cheers from the ones happy to be here and some nervous chuckles from those who didn’t. The tension slowly drained from the room as the star of Monster kind slowly laid out a brief explanation and the rules.

Once upon a time Dore had thought this was romantic, looking for a perfectly matched soulmate between Monsters and Humans to unite the people? A fairy tale story like the human children who got adopted by the Queen.

At least until he started reading between the lines of the official historical records.

“And here is the man of the hour himself, Captain of the Royal Guard and your lucky bachelor- Sans the skeleton!”

Jerked out of his thoughts at the proclamation Dore follows the spotlight in the sudden dimness of the room until he spots Sans. Exactly as all the other pictures and recordings showed of him, he wore his pressed uniform like he had just stepped off the recruitment poster.

He wore his relative age well, and just as in previous years he did not look hopeful angry or strained. Instead he looked over the crowd with the air of a man who would dismiss the lot of them if he had any say in the matter.

Something that probably didn’t translate well onto the screen was just how weary he seemed underneath the discouraging sternness. He had buried so many mates.

The brides, the grooms, the significant others - each getting their lifespan and nothing more than a footnote of grieving before it was on to the next whirlwind romance carefully scripted for viewing pleasure. Maybe Sans was just as much a cog in the machine of propaganda as the rest of them.

He points, silently, to three of the contestants and six hands fly off to collect and drag out their protesting forms to be thrown out of the Grand House. “Oh that’s too bad! Seems some of our contestants had a bit of LOVE to their name!” Announces Napstabot while some of the others murmur worriedly amongst themselves.

Dore can’t help the incredulous stare he shoots first the bot and then the Bachelor. _Really?_ _He_ of _all_ people protested that?

The look does not go unnoticed, in fact Sans practically bristles under the judgement he gives. “You there, do you have a problem?” 

This was the moment. The moment he was going home. It was enough of a relief that he actually finds himself relaxing enough to reply without censoring himself. “As judge, jury and executioner for the Queen I hardly think you’re in a position to talk about LOVE.” 

Or love for that matter but that was another subject altogether. 

“Excuse me?” Sans replies in an outraged hiss, and maybe a wiser man would have backed down, but despite not being a brave soul Dore had started this and was determined to say his piece. 

Besides there were cameras - nothing that bad ever happened to the contestants _during_ filming. 

“No, I won’t. You have been killing human and monsters alike since at least humans crawled back out of the mountains - just because of a technicality of _‘Karmic Retribution’_ that keeps it from benefiting you doesn’t make your hands any less clean then anyone else.” 

He meets the livid monster’s sockets fearlessly - there could be so much fallout from his having left the show this way, public opinion would slaughter his reputation and ruin any chance of retaining a job ever again at bare minimum. Even knowing that he couldn’t bring himself to care. It felt good to say that, like Dore had been waiting years to say that to his face. Maybe he had in a way. 

Sans’ hands were clenched at his side as he finally moved, the heavy rise and fall of his ribbons of service showing his breathing was hard, the firm clicks of his boots on the polished wooden floor less like the stomping he seemed to want to indulge. 

The monster didn’t stop until he was right in front of Dore, who refused to look away or cower before him. “What is your name, _Human_?” Sans demanded voice low and sneering out his race. 

Maybe its for the child inside of him that had felt so betrayed to learn that prince charming was anything but the storybook romance this world pretended, but he feels angry and snaps right back as fiercely as Sans was cold, “Its Dore, Theodore Vincent Bolle, _Monster_.”

It felt wrong, after all this time there was still tension between the races this way, but it also felt right lancing their issues with one another face to face. Like it or not that was what this whole farce of a show centered on - by forcing unity without addressing issues the divide was only plastered over. 

How where they not all tired of it? 

Dore does look away, glancing at the shocked faces of the other contestants and the smug expression the host was wearing. Dore was taking out his nearly life long grudge for the system, for this person on him yes but the repercussions might not be his alone to face. 

What if the seeds of unrest latched onto his words? What if someone started back up the war? All over stupid resentment of the inane Marriage Lottery?

He looks back down to Sans with the intention of apologizing, only to see not his skull still glaring back up at him, but a single white rose.

Dore leans back hand reaching up to grab and move the rose out of his face, only for Sans to release it entirely. Whatever his face was doing apparently amused the hell out of the Bachelor.

“Mweh heh heh!” Sans laughs with maniacal glee turning away from him and tucking his hands back behind his back. “You do not understand Mister Theodore Vincent Bolle, and it is _a Dore-Bolle_.”

A few quick people laughed at the pun but Dore himself was still gaping at Sans as if he had grown a second head. With both of their personal spaces back the tension in the room seems to break and change, furthered by the shift of attitude in the Bachelor. “No matter, I shall set aside some time to educate you while wooing my future mate. No task is too great for me after all!” 

He winks at the crowd and there’s scattered applause at the announcement. 

Shocked Dore manages a garbled “ _What?!?_ ” regaining Sans soul attention.The lights inside the eye sockets are dancing with the mischievous workings of a Machiavellian mind. 

“Seeing as you do not actually want to be here, feel free to retire to your room early while the rest of us begin proper introductions.” He gives a sweeping gesture towards the stare case, and a metallic hand at his back pushes Dore out of his staring back like a gaping fish. 

Letting himself be hustled away while Napstabot begins the cocktail party the way it should have started Dore has to admit that it was genius. Send him to bed like a tantrum throwing child, but keep him around long enough to show them reconciling for the camera. 

It left Dore feeling both resentful and grateful to the Bachelor. 

The second floor was just as he remembered it, only now the placards on each individual contestants’ door had an engraved name on it. Finding his he went in, to see the down right opulent rooms designed by some hedonistic genius had his meager belongings unpacked and tucked away around it like they belonged there. 

Like he did.

The robotic hand left his back and shut the door behind them, and another pair floated over obviously having been waiting for his arrival. The guiding hand gestured as if asking for a comment and Dore gave the camera a look as if to say _‘well that just happened’_ and then ignored all of the intrusion, having no intention of saying anything about tonight beyond that. 

The star’s extremities seemed to get the hint when he went over to the wardrobe and began fighting off the ridiculous bow-tie he’d been forced into some hours before, showing themselves out. As the door softly closes Dore lets his head thunk into the wooden door of the wardrobe, and his gaze drop down the the white rose still held clenched in his hand. The thorns hadn’t been removed and the sight of blood made him aware of the stinging pain. 

Well that just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to go ahead and let ya'll know that Yes Dore is a guy. A trans guy. No the story isn't about that and its not or at least shouldn't be necessarily relevant to the story itself. I just put that there because sometimes I'm going to comment on something related to that fact. 
> 
> Also again this is self indulgent like all of my writing so I wanted more male protagonists and more transmen rep in general so here I am producing content.


End file.
